{"id":1745,"date":"2023-06-30T22:08:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T02:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acrossculturesweb.com\/wp\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2023-06-30T22:08:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T02:08:53","slug":"is-this-english-get-down-from-the-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acrossculturesweb.com\/wp\/is-this-english-get-down-from-the-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Is this English: “Get down from the car!”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>For anyone familiar with the ethnic and linguistic make-up of Florida, it will come as no surprise that in the Miami area (and elsewhere in the state), everyday language use is characterized by a mix of English and Spanish. \u201cSpanglish\u201d is a term used to describe the influence of English into spoken Spanish. Now a linguist at Florida International University (Phillip Carter) has published findings<\/a> that indicate a new version of English is emerging in the Miami area which is heavily influenced by Spanish. An article<\/a> on the research in Scientific American<\/em> provides some examples:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got down from the car and went inside.\u201d
\n\u201cI made the line to pay for groceries.\u201d
\n\u201cHe made a party to celebrate his son\u2019s birthday.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most speakers of North American Spanish, those sentences sound strange. In fact, as Carter points out, these are \u201cliteral lexical calques<\/a>,\u201d i.e., direct, word-for-word translations.<\/p>\n

\u201cGet down from the car\u201d instead of \u201cget out of the car\u201d is based on the Spanish phrase \u201cbajar del carro,\u201d which translates, for speakers outside of Miami, as \u201cget out of the car.\u201d But \u201cbajar\u201d means \u201cto get down,\u201d so it makes sense that many Miamians think of \u201cexiting\u201d a car in terms of \u201cgetting down\u201d and not \u201cgetting out.\u201d Locals often say \u201cmarried with,\u201d as in \u201cAlex got married with Jos\u00e9,\u201d based on the Spanish \u201ccasarse con\u201d \u2013 literally translated as \u201cmarried with.\u201d They\u2019ll also say \u201cmake a party,\u201d a literal translation of the Spanish \u201chacer una fiesta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter provides additional examples that are based on phonetic transfers: \u201c\u2019Thanks God,\u2019 a type of loan translation from \u2018gracias a Dios,\u2019 is common in Miami. In this case, speakers analogize the \u2018s\u2019 sound at the end of \u201cgracias\u201d and apply it to the English form.<\/p>\n

A YouTube video provides further examples from Carter\u2019s research:<\/p>\n